Through the presidencies of Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, the Caribbean crises of the Cold War era are explored in depth in this riveting account of clashing ideologies, the politics of fear, the machinations of superpowers, and the daring of revolutionaries. From Cuba came the charismatic Fidel Castro and his mysterious brother Raúl; from Argentina, the ideologue Che Guevara; from the Dominican Republic, the capricious psychopath Rafael Trujillo; and from Haiti, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, a buttoned-down doctor with interests in Vodou, embezzlement, and torture. Alex von Tunzelmann follows these five rivals and accomplices, each with a separate vision for his tropical paradise, and each in search of power and adventure.

"A mesmerizing, Conradian tale where the truth is almost too dark to bear. A remarkably gripping popular history."—Kirkus Reviews